The ghost of Indira Gandhi haunts a stagnant Congress

Ajay Maken today announced that Priyanka Gandhi will campaign in only Rae Bareli and Amethi while managing campaign for Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi nationwide. And just like that we are back to parading the Indira Gandhi lookalike in time for elections.

Time to go from the pixie cut she seems to prefer to an bob-cut transition something, though either she never gets long enough to achieve Indira's very 70's style bob or there's a careful blend of what is hep today mixed in. Get the curling irons out, for heaven's sake. Make sure people notice the wavy hair and high forehead which she normally seems to prefer to cover. The right side parting remains. I wonder if she will get a streak soon, as people's memories of a 3 decade dead Prime Minister fade.

Of course, anyone can campaign, and there are family members campaigning for other politicians as well. None of these family members become news releases of their own, unlike a certain flashback wannabe. Priyanka Gandhi's resemblance to Indira Gandhi has been overused to trigger a sense of "rightful PM" feeling, and I suppose there is nothing illegal about it.

The larger problem here is a Congress Party that has become so entrenched in its dynasty obsessed ways that they fail to register a changing world. Not content with wrapping a western bahu in a sari and getting her to fit a mold we are trying to drag Indian women out of, get bitiya to act like she is living in her grandmother's era, including fashions that were probably hep on her grandmother at that time, but now are just money saved on getting a good blouse stitched.

Over and over, this pattern repeats. Over and over the party "admits" that there is a need for change and goes back to do the exact same thing.

There seems to be an institutional inability to accept powerful women, without hiding them behind the one powerful woman who had more balls than the lot, who died long ago. Who is Priyanka Gandhi? Who cares? She is Indira Gandhi for a party that firmly refuses to enter this century.

In a time when the Congress is desperate to be seen like it understands this century and the people inhabiting it, what more powerful icon for the urban vote and women's empowerment could it have been than the NORMAL Priyanka Gandhi with sassy hair and her own very confident style? Forget the people, the Congress seems unable to get its leaders out of the bahu-beti-bitiya rut.

The idea of leaders leading seems to have completely passed these jokers by, as they change people from who they are to what the people want to see. Compare this with an Indira Gandhi who had no qualms being photographed smoking or winning a war or declaring emergency. Whether her controversial actions were liked or not is another matter, but she was HERSELF, not pretending to be someone else to give people what they wanted to see. That is why liked or not, she was a LEADER. Which bitiya Priyanka, as a pale ghost haunting the Congress will never be. AND if she succeeds by some miracle, she will be succeeding in endorsing stereotypes of women as they were in the previous century - a setback for women power in a place like UP - for votes.

Brutal defeat in the Delhi Assemblyelections had Rahul Gandhi going into a stream of consciousness kind of speech that spanned feelings of immediate defeat in the beginning with intent to do what AAP did toward the end, rambling gracelessly to the point he probably didn't realize that for Congress to do what AAP did, he'd have to let go of the mike first.

Unprecedented for Indian politics, the aftermath of the Delhi Gang Rape had women from the Congress Party complaining to Sonia Gandhi about sexual harassment by politicians in the party, where big headlines were made of Sonia Gandhi's firm resolve that no sexual harassers would be allowed in the Party. Limelight gone, not a thing was done to deliver on this promise.

Rahul Gandhi has spewed endless nonsense about party democracy and moving away from dynastic politics without realizing that it is still him speaking.

And now, as elections approach, you see again the complete incomprehension that people do not want to see dynastic politics. Back comes Priyanka Gandhi, who had asked to be called Priyanka Vadra, but like the changed hair parting, high forehead and sudden interest in curls, I suppose Gandhi sounds better for election time announcements.

There is nothing wrong with this. It is not illegal to be so completely senile that you simply cannot comprehend a changing nation. That you see nothing wrong in reinforcing stereotypes of women bound to dead traditions in a coutry where women are trying desperately to claw their way into an individual identity, just to get votes of people who like to keep things as they were in the past. But if you call yourself a progressive party after this, you are not just retrogressive, you're illiterate to boot.

It is just sad to see a party born before the nation, that fought for independence and led the country through most of its life fear change so much that it would rather go into oblivion worshiping its cliches than risk the change it claims to see the need for at every turn.

Vidyut has a keen interest in mass psychology and using it as a lens to understand contemporary politics, social inequality and other dynamics of power within the country. She is also into Linux and internet applications and servers and has sees technology as an important area India lacks security in.

About Vidyut

Vidyut has a keen interest in mass psychology and using it as a lens to understand contemporary politics, social inequality and other dynamics of power within the country. She is also into Linux and internet applications and servers and has sees technology as an important area India lacks security in. View all posts by Vidyut

3 thoughts on “The ghost of Indira Gandhi haunts a stagnant Congress”

But is it not **far better** by not going out in front as leaders and getting all the flak from public ? Only the control needs to remain with the dynasty. The actual PM for day to day work can be any loyal person. But the PM must be a really loyal person who is efficient.

Once police reached Indira Gandhi's house to arrest her. She sought time to change into a white sari purposefully. That incident speaks volume of how leaders work on their clothes which ultimately helps them have a clean image.